Q&A
What is the significance of Esther 4:14?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Open Theism, Q&A
Topics: Open Theism
Verse: Esther 4
The wise Mordecai encourages Esther to bravely risk her life by pleading the case of the Jews before King Xerxes, saying, “…if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will…
Jesus Said, “Buy a sword.” What did he mean?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Mennonerds, Non-Violence, Violence
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
Yesterday, I challenged the common assumption that Jesus was violent when he drove out the animals and turned over tables in the Temple courts. (See post.) Today I want to look at the second episode…
Why Did God Require Animal Sacrifice in the Old Testament?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Animal Sacrifice, Atonement, Christus Victor, Forgiveness, God, God's Wrath, Satan
Topics: Christus Victor view of Atonement, Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
Question: I have a question about the atonement. Why did YHWH in the OT demand that people sacrifice animals? And if these sacrifices anticipated the ultimate sacrifice of the Messiah, as the author of Hebrews…
Do All Roads Lead to God?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Apologetics, Christianity, Debate, God, Jesus, Reasoning, Theology
Topics: Christology, Death and Salvation
First, if it’s really true that Jesus is the way to Father and that no one comes to the Father except through him, (Jn 14:6) then it seems that no other religious leader or religious…
Why Do Christians Keep Struggling With Sin?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Flesh, Identity in Christ, Seeing is Believing
Topics: Sin
If we truly are righteous in Christ Jesus (see Earlier Post about our identity in Christ), why do we need to be reminded to live righteous lives? If we are new creations and have a…
Did Jesus Believe in Satan?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Demons, Jesus, Satan, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
Jesus’ teaching, his exorcisms, his healings and other miracles, as well as his work on the cross, all remain somewhat incoherent and unrelated to one another until we interpret them as acts of war. As…
Process Theology & Open Theism: What’s the Difference?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Open Theism, Process Theology, Q&A
Topics: Open Theism What it is and is not
Question: When ReKnew talks about Open Theism is it a mistake for people to equate it with Process theology, and if so what are the defining differences? I guess I am starting to lean toward…
What Does It Mean that God Hardens Hearts?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Choice, Determinism, Free Will, Is God to Blame?, Open Theism, Predestination
Topics: Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
Some argue that passages which speak of God hardening human hearts (Jos 11:19-20; Ex 7:3; 10:1; Rom 9:18) demonstrate that God controls everything, including people resistant to this declared intentions. He hardens whomever he wills,…
If salvation depends on our free choice, how are we saved totally by grace?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Free Will, Grace, Predestination, Q&A, Salvation, The Holy Spirit
Topics: Death and Salvation, Providence, Predestination and Free Will, Trinity
Question: I’m an Arminian-turned-Calvinist, and the thing that turned me was the realization that if salvation hinges on whether individuals choose to be saved or not, as Arminians and Open Theists believe, then we can’t…
What is the biblical basis for “free will”?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Free Will, Q&A
Topics: Free Will and the Future
Question: Much of your theology depends on a supposed ability humans have to thwart God’s will by our free choices. But what is the biblical basis for your conclusion that people have “freedom”—at least “freedom”…
What Does It Mean to Be Married to Christ?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Bride of Christ, Covenant, Jesus, Married to Christ
Topics: Death and Salvation
The New Testament calls Christ the “bridegroom” and the church his “bride.” To understand what this means can change your life. We need to read this through the lens of first century Jewish marriage. In…
Atonement: What is the Christus Victor View?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Atonement, Christus Victor, Cruciform Theology, God's Wrath, Jesus, Penal Substitution View of Atonement, Satan
Topics: Christus Victor view of Atonement
Most western Christians today understand the atonement as a sort of legal-transaction that took place between the Father and the Son that got humanity “off the hook.” The legal-transaction scenario goes something like this: God’s…
When does salvation happen?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Q&A, Salvation, Security
Topics: Death and Salvation, End Times
Question: I grew up in a strict, fundamentalist community and our whole goal in life was to get people to pray “the sinners prayer.” Once they prayed this prayer, we believed, they were “saved.” But…
What does the Bible mean when it says God “sent an evil spirit” on certain people?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Bible, Demons, Old Testament, Q&A, Responding to Calvinism, Spiritual Warfare
Topics: Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors, Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
Verse: 1 Samuel 16, 1 Samuel 18, Judges 9
Question: In Judges 9:23, I Samuel 16:15ff and 18:10 it is said that God sends evil spirits on people. Doesn’t this support the idea that everything Satan and demons do is under God’s sovereign control?…
How do you respond to Ephesians 1:4-5?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Q&A, Responding to Calvinism
Topics: Providence, Predestination and Free Will, Responding to Objections
Verse: Ephesians 1
Question: Ephesians 1 refers to believers as predestined before the foundation of the world. How do you reconcile this with your view that free actions of people (like choosing to believe in Christ) can’t be…
Q&A: Condemning Sin
Category: Q&A
Tags: Discernment, Jesus, Judgment, Love, Sin
Topics: Sin
Q: I have a question about how you answer the rare occasions when Jesus apparently felt it necessary to publicly condemn sin: like the cleansing of the temple and his very strong judgments on Pharisees…
Why Did Jesus Curse the Fig Tree?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Gospels, Jesus, Miracles, Satan
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
One of the strangest episodes recorded in the Gospels is Jesus cursing a fig tree because he was hungry and it didn’t have any figs (Mk 11:12-14; Mt 21:18-19). It’s the only destructive miracle found…
Was Jesus Abandoned by the Father on the Cross?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Abandonment, Cross, Jesus, Love, Trinity
Topics: Atonement and The Cross
As Jesus hung on the cross, he cried, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (Mt 27:46). This is the cry of our God who stooped to the furthest possible depths to experience his own antithesis, as the…
Does the Old Testament Justify “Just War”?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Augustine, Cruciform Theology, Just War, Kingdom Living, Non-Violence, Old Testament, OT Violence, Violence
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
Since the time of Augustine, Christians have consistently appealed to the violent strand of the Old Testament to justify waging wars when they believed their cause was “just.” (This is Augustine’s famous “just war” theory.)…
Why Did God Heal or Not?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Faith, healing, Sickness, Spiritual Warfare, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Faith & Doubt, The Problem of Evil
In 1996 a 27-year-old man in my church named David was diagnosed with an inoperable brain cancer. The doctors decided to send David to the Mayo Clinic to receive some experimental treatments on the slim…